ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey – Edwin De Los Santos wasn’t spectacular Saturday night, but he steadily, decisively outboxed Joseph Adorno during De Los Santos’ first fight in 10 months.
The Dominican southpaw dictated distance and pace, consistently connected with his right hook and avoided Adorno’s power punches for most of their 10-round lightweight fight at Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Phillips Theater. De Los Santos’ superiority was evident on the scorecards of judges Ron McNair (99-91), Robin Taylor (100-90) and Paul Wallace (100-90), who credited him with a unanimous win on the Jaron Ennis-Roiman Villa undercard.
De Los Santos (16-1, 14 KOs), who went the distance for just the second time in his career, produced his third straight impressive victory. The Santo Domingo native knocked out then-undefeated fighters in each of his previous two fights, Jose Valenzuela (12-2, 8 KOs) and Luis Acosta (13-1, 12 KOs).
De Los Santos, who resides in Reading, Pennsylvania, entered the ring as slightly more than a 3-1 favorite according to most sportsbooks. Their fight unfolded accordingly, as De Los Santos mostly had his way with Allentown’s Adorno (17-3-2, 14 KOs).
De Los Santos, 23, fought for the first time since he upset Valenzuela by third-round knockout last September 4 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Adorno, 24, lost his previous bout by majority decision to another Dominican southpaw, Elvis Rodriguez (14-1-1, 12 KOs), on February 25 at The Armory in Minneapolis.
Fans booed early in the 10th round due to a lack of action, but De Los Santos seemed satisfied to play it safe and cruise to his relatively easy victory.
A ringside physician took a look at Adorno after the eighth round. He allowed Adorno to leave his corner for the ninth round, when neither fighter produced much offense.
Adorno landed a right and De Los Santos connected with a left in an exchange a little less than a minute into the eighth round. De Los Santos landed a hard jab that affected Adorno later in the eighth round.
Yet another right hook by De Los Santos landed with just under 45 seconds to go in the seventh round. De Los Santos’ counter right hook knocked Adorno off balance barely 20 seconds into the seventh round.
De Los Santos looked relaxed during the sixth round, when he mostly made Adorno miss with his punches. The most effective punch of that round was the left with which De Los Santos split Adorno’s guard with just over 35 seconds to go in it.
De Los Santos and Adorno missed most of their punches during the fifth round. Fitch warned Adorno for hitting De Los Santos with an illegal body blow to his back about 45 seconds into the fifth round.
Adorno split De Los Santos’ guard with a right hand with about 10 seconds to go in the fourth round. He knocked De Los Santos off balance with a left hook about five seconds later.
De Los Santos complained early in the fourth round that Adorno hit him with an illegal body blow to his back. De Los Santos made a similar complaint during the third round, but Fitch didn’t warn Adorno in either instance.
Another right hook by De Los Santos knocked Adorno off balance with just over 1:20 on the clock in the third round.
After controlling the action and landing the harder punches in the first round, De Los Santos threw fewer punches during the second round. He did catch Adorno with a counter right hook with under 30 seconds remaining in the second round, which was the most significant shot of those three minutes.
De Los Santos countered Adorno with a right hook just before the midway mark of the first round. A straight left by De Los Santos then backed up Adorno with 35 seconds to go in the opening round.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.